I found this amazing tool to remotely debloat any Android phone or box. I used this one to remove the google launcher full of ads and crap and install a very clean and beautiful call projectivity launcher.

Here is the link : https://adbappcontrol.com/en/

Once they rolled out ads on the home page (Shame. Shame. Shame.), I installed "Launcher manager" and "Wolf launcher" to give it an interface I really like. A big background picture, some large buttons for the commonly used apps, and then progressively smaller buttons as you scroll down the screen for the less commonly used features.

It broke once when an update rolled out, but since then has been running fine and I never once see the bloated monstrosity that is the default home screen.

The only qualm with my setup I have is that access to the configuration sidebar isn't as intuitive as it was with the pre 9.0 version (which frankly I don't remember anymore aside from the general impression). That's a very minor price to pay to have an interface without ads.

Reformat, install Flauncher, and run the adb commands to disable the default launcher. My 2019 pro was getting slow and formatting it fixed it. It's running 9.0 but I haven't really had any issues with it after replacing the launcher.

Look into Linux 4 Tegra or L4T and configure it to be easily usable with the remote. I wonder if there is some already documented way of making Linux into a TV OS.

I flashed LineageOS in it and works like a charm!!

I use sideload launcher 3 on my shield pro and it's super simple and no frills but fast and does what I need. I did kind of miss the recently played automatic bookmarks that I think you can only get on default launcher (correct me if wrong!) so I left default on my other shield. Recently it has been more gunky so I'm planning to install another launcher. May try projectivity.

I connected to mine via ADB over ssh to remove the stock launcher and install FLauncher. It kept trying to launch the google launcher anyways so I removed play services and some other stuff also and just replaced the stock youtube with some third party client. Its been working ok so far! Every so often it will boot to a black screen (I think it fails to start the launcher) but a reboot fixes that.